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All business owners should encourage their staff not to skip their lunch breaks or else face the possibility of a number of negative long-term personal and work effects.

The warning comes after a new study by employment consultancy Croner found that 19 per cent of UK adults do not now take a lunch break during their regular working day.

Gillian Dowling, employment technical consultant at Croner, says that business bosses should make sure their staff are getting a decent lunch break during their day, or else face breaching health and safety legislation and increase the possibility of poor staff performance and flagging health.

'We all know that working long hours affects our ability to cope with our day-to-day roles, and as such we are starting to see more people question their work-life balance and taking appropriate action,' says Ms Dowling.

'However, what some employees are failing to realise is that not taking time out in the working day can, in the long-term, also affect their health and their ability to do the job.

'Employers have to make sure that workers are having a rest break under the Working Time Regulations, so if it's an everyday occurrence, employers need to be looking into the reasons why and addressing the situation.'

The Working Time Regulations were introduced in 1998 and mean that all workers are entitled to a 20-minute break away from their desk as part of a six-hour working day.

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